our wedding

Our one year wedding anniversary was last week, and I thought I would take a moment to relive our wedding and share the details with the blog world.

We were married on an 80 degree day in October overlooking Phoenix at a beautiful hilltop resort restaurant. The day was absolutely perfect and we owe it to our wonderful planner, photographer, restaurant staff, florist and of course, our friends and family. Our Uncle Pat officiated the ceremony and we said our “I do’s” right as the sun set behind the beautiful Arizona mountains.Here are some of the details that went into our special day:

Color palette: We went with soft coral, navy, and grey. The bridesmaids wore floor length coral gowns with a darker shade sash and the men wore grey suites with navy and coral plaid ties.

Music: Possibly the most touching part of our entire day lead back to music. For our ceremony we had a string quartet play the more traditional wedding songs. During our cocktail hour we had Buena Vista Social Club playing for some light background music. At dinner, we had a pianist playing while guests ate and mingled around. Finally, leading into our dancing portion of the evening, we had a good friend’s band take the stage. They did such and AWESOME job and it was fun to have a live band to keep the energy up on the dance floor. The most special moment, however, has to be when the maid of honor and best man took the stage to surprise me by signing the duet Falling Slowly from the movie Once. It was a song that my husband and I love and it was so touching to see our two best friends singing this beautiful song on our magical evening. On a lighter note, we had Flight of the Concords “Business Time” play during the garter toss.

Flowers: We choose a simple combination of roses and hydrangeas for ceremony and reception pieces, as well as bouquets.

Dress: I purchased my dress during a trip to Napa with my mom. She lined up some great boutiques to visit and the last shop we went to was having a trunk sale. The designer of this gown was actually there and it’s true what they say, you know the one when you put it on! When I came out he said it the dress was made for me (yeah yeah) but seriously he was so sweet and it was just the perfect story. Originally the gown was a zip up back, but he agreed to add buttons for me at no cost.

Programs: I had our program, including songs, readings, parents and bridal party, printed on ivory vellum paper and then wrapped in navy ribbon. Programs are usually one of those things you can do without, but we really wanted to recognize those family members no longer with us and felt that was the best place to do so.

Favors: We went to France for our honeymoon, so to bring a little bit of that to our wedding we served macaroons in small navy boxes with ivory ribbon that said “merci beaucoup.”

Escort cards: Our friends and family mean the world to us and we wanted to personalize these to make them feel like not just another wedding guest. We gathered photos of all the guests with either Brandon or I and wrote their table number on the back of the card, as well as a personalized note to them. The framed signed said “Find your photo, find your table.” It was really fun to go through all these pics and they acted as another little takeaway for our guests.

Reception: The reception was in the beautiful dining area of the restaurant (which also had a large patio for the ceremony and separate bar area for dancing). We decorated with groupings of various silver candlesticks collected by my mom and mother in law for months leading up to the wedding. Linens where ivory with ivory hydrangeas as center pieces. Guests favors were places on top of each place setting.

I could go on and on, but I won’t! These were just some of the small things that made our wedding so special and so “us.”

*All images taken by Lexi Treat from Jonas and Treat Photography. http://jonasandtreat.com/